Category: General

It is that time of year again, yes the time I begin begging. I am fundraising for United Way, I am very excited about it. I feel the work we do has an impact on the community around us. Everyone is so generous with their time and money and also with items given to us for raffles and door prizes.
We have the sports jerseys for sale again, $60.00 for genuine team jersey’s, of which $15.00 from every sale goes towards United Way. Last year I bought three of them for Christmas presents. I was even able to get Jeffrey one that they call a throwback. it was a Roger Staubach one. He was happy. So message me, call me, email me or skywrite your order! I will take it any way I can get it!
Had an amazing weekend in Owasso, Oklahoma, I saw my favorite nephew, partied like it was 1999, or in actuality like it was 1980ish with Tammi and new friend Traci, the band totally rocked my visit! Then spend the rest of the time with Linda and Bill and some of their kids. Well they have five, you can’t really expect me to keep track of all of them! Kidding, I know exactly which ones were there, and which ones I missed. They all had me ready to move back up there, of course that is the way I feel every time I go there, then I come home to my life and realize I really like Texas. I so cannot leave my kids and Tessa, I don’t know if the Irishman would move with me. Long distance relationships are not easy. So there you have it, in Texas I shall remain, besides I don’t know if the town of Owasso could seriously handle not only me and Tammi together, but me and Linda together!

Today on Facebook, of course, a good friend of mine, Shanon, who has a morning show on Heaven 97 KHVN said she and her radio partner were going to be discussing women who sleep with married men. I have been the wronged woman in that scenario, so today I would like to say a few words to the women who do this. Actually I want to speak to the one who did this to me in particular, so here it is an open letter from the hurt wife, girlfriend or fiancé, just pick which one you are and this letter is on your behalf.

Dear Other Woman,

You think you have won, but you have not, you, in fact of have lost, and lost big time and I am going to tell you why. It is because you have betrayed your own kind, womankind. We are supposed to be united, we are woman hear us roar, it was a song, our anthem. But then you came along, you looked in, saw my life and wanted it for your own. What no one told you was that life came with a price. The price I paid for you taking that life, well, it was emotionally damaging for me, and my children. But you are an emotionally damaged person yourself, so that is not going to affect you, no the price you will pay will be eternal. The man that left us for you will not remain faithful, if he cheats with you, he will cheat on you, he will always be looking for the next one, the younger one, the prettier one. The one that will now laugh at his inane jokes, and yes he knows they are inane, but you are still expected to laugh. He will move on from you, never fear, you will be left by the wayside just like I was.
No the price you pay, is eternal loneliness, because you will never be satisfied to have something of your own. You will always want what someone else has; I was an unfortunate victim of that. I believe you are this way because you lack something, perhaps pride, pride in who you are, where you come from, pride in just the fact you are a woman. Perhaps you are weak; perhaps you have low self esteem. Whatever it is that makes you go after men that are with other women, you need to figure it out, you need to fix it.
As women, we are supposed to look after one another, the way Ruth looked after her mother-in-law even after her husband’s death. That is the way we are supposed to be with each other, supportive, loving, always lifting each other up. We are not supposed to want to destroy another woman and her children’s lives; we should be trying to find ways to make each other lives better, stronger, easier. If I had known you before you had done any of this I would like to think I would have been your friend and if you had come to me I would have talked you out of going for someone else’s husband/boyfriend/fiancé. I would like to think that I would have lifted you up in prayer, told you when you felt weak to call me. Together, as women we will overcome whatever it is that gives you this impulse. I know what you are thinking, I know nothing of this, but I do, I have a cousin, who is a great deal older than I, who had 3 children with a married man. I remember this, my grandmother had disowned her, it was a huge thing in our family, women do not do this kind of thing. My cousin was convinced the man would leave his wife and be all hers, after the 3rd child he left my cousin, penniless, destitute and without child support. It was horrible, in the end she was alone, she had caused another woman pain, and now she would have to pay the price.
Eventually so will you, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Is trying to take this man, who does not belong with me, worth it? If he is with someone else he is not your soul mate, he has already found someone, committed to her, put a ring on it, he belongs to someone else.
I hope any woman out there contemplating doing this will stop and think about the women it affects; it is long lasting and long reaching effects

It is almost that time again, yes, the presidential election time, and I am not looking forward to it. Our country is in terrible shape, the current administration continues to blame the former one for their missteps, and the choices that are out there are, well, disheartening at best.
Where or where is a Ronald Regan when you need him? Someone to rid in on their trusty steed and save the day, a cowboy, tall, commanding, tough when he needs to be and understanding when that is called for? When did we become a country of pacifists? When did that happen? I wasn’t paying attention, it slipped by me and countless others. Why are we not getting tough on some issues and why do we continue to try and save the world from their selves? Yes children are starving in Africa, but children are starving here as well, in our country. Save us first, then save others. Texas is in a serious situation with the drought conditions, no relief in site, yet the federal government doesn’t think it is that bad. Perhaps the President should come tour our state, oh wait, he’s on vacation. Sorry Mr. President didn’t mean to interrupt your good time with our bad one.
And before you write me off as a Republican who does nothing but criticize the current administration, let’s get this straight, Sarah Palin is a joke, Michele Bachman is scary, Mitt Romney well, no comment, the one I really like who has the least chance is Tim Pawlenty, he’s too nice, so far, he may show some teeth later on.
I am seriously disheartened by how many of my facebook friends “like” Sarah Palin, that woman is just scary, and illiterate, uneducated, by choice!! And if she is joking on not knowing American history, well it is a poor joke at best, at worst it is tacky. Her comments are unconscionable as she tries to rile up the people with the least education and the least understanding of well anything that has to do with the judicial system, the bill making process (was I the only one watching School House Rock?) she seems to cater to the lowest common dominator. I also want to know why she was talking to when she was talking about Joe six-pack. Who is that? And winking and calling herself a maverick. I will be honest, I can’t stand the sound of her voice, it is grating, her accent is repugnant to me. I don’t understand her popularity; perhaps someone can explain it to me.
Anyway, now is the time for real change, not surface change, now is the time for hard work, on the part of the American people and the American political machine. We want someone who can be effective, not push their own agendas, but do what is best for the whole. Who are you? I’m waiting for you.

Today is not an easy day, it is the anniversary of my Mom’s going home, that is how we refer to death, the whole week has really been difficult, and Tuesday was Michael’s birthday. Michael is, was, my son, he died at 12 weeks of age. I miss both of them terribly, still, Michael has been gone 27 years, my mom has been gone 8 years. I thought things would get easier, well, yes the pain has lessened somewhat, but the longing to see them, hug them talk to them has never lessened.
I won’t bore you with stories of my mom today, I know I have a tendency to go on about her; I won’t bore you with stories about Michael, simply because those are incredibly private and still very painful. What I will tell you today is that if you are dealing with lose and personal pain, you will have excruciating days and you will have magnificent days. There will be days where you will think of the people missing in your life and laugh at the thoughts that enter, the amazing times you had with them, the fun times, the simply goofy times you enjoyed. There will be times where the pain is unbearable and you spend the whole day crying, watching one sappy movie after another because on that day they mirror your soul.
What they say about time being the great healer, they are right, your heart does heal, you do carry on with life, you have your successes, you have your failures and you have these pockets of incredibleness. You wish you could share it with the ones that are missing, I am here to tell you that you will, one day, you will see them again. It will be amazing and joyous and everything you want it to be.
In the meantime, sit up straight, raise your chin, plaster a smile on your face and embrace your emotions, because they are all you really have. Your emotions, I am not a big believer in subduing ones emotions, they are there for a reason, they are there for you to deal with pain, happiness, sorrow, joy and sadness. If you subdue them how will you ever recognize the good ones? The hard to deal with emotions are there for a reason, I firmly believe we learn lessons from the pain. And after it is over and we have made it through to the other side we are able to help others through their pain.
I miss you and love you Mom and Michael, please hug each other for me, and know that I will see you again and we will catch up then.

So yesterday it was back to the ENT to try and figure out why I can’t smell anything, well I can smell it if it is very strong and right in front of me. This has been going on for over two months now and is getting a little ridiculous. They put me on a round of steroids; he said that he believed the nerve was damaged due to the antibiotics. He even said he thought I would end up cancelling my next appointment because my sense of smell had returned. It did not; it didn’t even get a little better. Yesterday they tell me that I will now need a CT scan on my head. Finally! I will get to see what is going on in there, because I gotta tell you that even I am not so sure all the time.
So many thoughts swirl around in my brain, that at times it is hard to silence them so I can sort everything out. And I really need to sort some things out these days; it is a jumbled mess up there and doesn’t seem to be getting better. I am usually very good at figuring my life out; everything is black and white, cut and dry. But these days’ areas of grey are seeping in and I find myself confused. I wish I were as good at taking my own advice as I am at doling it out. I seem to be very wise when it comes to others but when it comes to me I am an idiot.
I don’t like to think of myself as a hard person, but I know I am tough, I bark orders like a drill sergeant, my dad even used to tell me that. I have always had a forceful personality, I do not cry, well very rarely, just at things like Ice loves Coco, not at the real life stuff. If you wrong me I can cut you off in a heartbeat, so why am I having problems now? life is funny, throwing you curve balls, just when you think the path is straight, your life is all figured out, you know exactly what you will be doing until you die, at the age of 110, the road not only curves, it is now on a precipice, you wonder, should I just jump or wait for the parachute?
That is where I am at now, the precipice, of course I cannot tell you what that is, and what I am jumping away from or will I jump into it? Only time will tell.

Another day, another chance to eat within my points, I did it yesterday, even managing to have Taco Bueno. I am so totally a Taco Bueno girl, I don’t even know when it started but there it is. I am about to make a confession here, I know you all will be shocked to your very cores, but if someone told me I would have to choose between Starbucks and Taco Bueno, I would choose Bueno. I can make coffee at home; I cannot make Taco Bueno food at home. One reason is I don’t cook, I choose not to, and it always turns out weird. So I stopped. No need to cook when there are so many options available, especially in Plano, TX.
Here lately I have become enamored with watermelon, I cannot get enough of it, I eat it every day, all day and it is zero points so I can just eat all of it! And I do, I will probably get tired of it eventually but for now, yum and refreshing in this heat.
Ok, it is almost that time again, United Way time, we will begin our fund raising efforts next week, scouring the area for giveaways that we can auction or raffle off to make money for this great cause. Last year was a phenomenal fund raising period, our group raised over $9,000.00 for United Way. I am looking to go over $10,000.00 this year. We have two months to make it happen. So if any of you out there have a business you would like to promote, or would like to donate a gift basket for us to raffle, I am taking donations. Please leave your contact information in the comments section, or at least your email address and I will contact you.
Ok people today is Tuesday, go out and make it a spectacular day!

This weekend I discovered the most amazing thing, on Facebook of course, there is a new page called You know you are from Owasso if…. Well you all know I am all over that, it has been the most fun, there are over 1100 members so far. We are of all ages, classes and bring different memories to the site.
As all of you who read me regularly know I am very loyal to my hometown of Owasso, Oklahoma, I still believe it was the best place to grow up. We had the best teachers and from I can see received the best public school education in America. We were not taught to pass a standardized test, we were taught by teachers who were passionate about their calling. Teachers who were brilliant themselves, Mr. Wright, who taught history with a passion, anyone remember his war reenactments? Mrs. Arnold, who taught English, she was so tough, strong and scary at times, I learned so much from her. Oh and for those on that site that had her, please clean up your grammar, if she ever finds us she is going to be on some of you like a duck on a June bug.
Reading everyone’s memories, posting some of my own, I was overwhelmed by the flood of emotion and memories this weekend. I left Owasso as soon as I could, however, that does not mean I didn’t love it, I did and still do. Owasso holds challenging memories for me as well, my son is buried there along with my parents. Along with the happy memories there are difficult ones, I deal with the ones that I can and push the ones that are too painful away.
I love to go visit, I love seeing the growth, it is not the same Owasso, it has grown so much and I am grateful. I am grateful my home town did not go the way of a lot of small towns in Oklahoma. They have not stagnated, they have grown and prospered. I am so very proud to say I am an Owassoan. We all so totally rock, on the whole, we are all smart, funny, caring and amazing humans. We have found our way in the world and are making our mark. We, the natives, have not remained still either, as Owasso grew, so did we. In our chosen places of abode, I landed in Texas, after a brief sojourn to Georgia. Others landed in California, Florida, Missouri, over seas. Serving our great country, we learned a lot about loyalty and giving back in Owasso.
Today I am often horrified at the level of public education in the state of Texas; all the teachers do is teach a standardized test, it is horrifying how much these children do not know. Thankfully mine all went through before that was really pushed. I am not impressed with these children, I do not believe if they pass this test they have high intellect, they know nothing about history, they cannot speak proper English and their vocabulary’s are stagnate. It is horrid, if this is the level of education that all of American children are receiving these days, we need to start over, use Owasso back in the day as a model. I am with Matt Damon on this issue, I was taught to use my imagination, I was taught history, math, English, literature, music and pride, pride in my achievements. Achievements that for the most part cannot be measured by a standardized test, thanks to the teachers in Owasso, and my mother, I have a large vocabulary, a comprehension skill that I hope staves off dementia, and I still have a love of learning.
To all of my amazing teachers of Owasso, Oklahoma, I salute you, I take my hat off to you, I lift my glass in your honor. You totally rocked my world!

I would like to report a sad occurrence, it will come as no surprise to some, others, well you will be shocked to your very core. I have broken up with weather, it was not my fault, and I would like to say right now I am innocent of any wrong doing. Weather has betrayed me on many occasions, the promise of snow, then none, taunting me with cooler temperatures, then yanking it away. This summer has been the last straw, blasting me with temperatures that are beyond humanly endurable. I don’t know what I did to deserve such callous treatment; however, I have reached my breaking point. The relationship is abusive in nature, in the past I have lavished praise on Weather, telling all how good he is to me. With the snow, the ice, rain, sleet and cooler temperatures of the past, but now, with the furnace like heat blasting me in the face every time I step beyond my air conditioned haven. Well I can no longer take the abuse. We are done, I know what you are thinking, as soon as Weather shows remorse and the temperatures drop to something more normalized I will take him back. Not this time, I am done with the taunting, the teasing the blatant, spiteful inconsistencies.
If anyone out there is in an abusive relationship with someone like Weather, get out now, drop them, teach them a lesson. We will not take it anymore!
So it is Friday, I am wearing a great outfit and my hair is amazing today! All in all a good day to break up with Weather as he will be jealous that I have moved on so easily. I am dumping him to spend more time with Television; Television has never let me down, has always been there and loves me.

So the other day a questions was posed on Facebook, which Sex in the City character are you? Well that is a loaded question, because I identify with portions of each of them, except for Carrie. I believe Carrie did some of the stupidest things a woman could do. Things that when they happened I was like OMG no woman on earth would do these things. I really hope I am right. Let’s take for instance the time Big told her he did not want to introduce her to his mother. She found out he went to church with his mother every Sunday, so she drags one of her cohorts with her, dresses in what she thinks is her Sunday best and off she goes. She “accidentally” bumps into them after church, forcing an introduction. Then her feelings get hurt when Big does not introduce her the way she wants to be introduced. I remember watching that episode with my nephew and he and I both were like are you kidding me. We could not believe she had done this incredibly stupid thing.
I have to admit I love Samantha, simply because she is so very honest with who she is and what she wants out of life. There is a line she says in the first movie, and yes I drug the Irishman with me to see it, she turns to Smith Jarred and says “I love you, but I love me more”. The Irishman turns to me and says that is so you. And he is right, I love me, I love me more than almost anything and anyone. The only people I truly love more than me are my children and their progeny. I love who I am, I love the fact that I recognize I have issues and deal with them; I get rid of the ones that harm me and keep the ones that make me slightly eccentric. I love who I am, I hope I have instilled in my daughter the ability to love herself and with that respect who she is and stay true to herself.
I agree with Charlotte on the rules, be a rules girl, respect yourself and others will respect you as well. I also love the fact that her vision about who she was changed, she decided that being with someone simply because he was who society said she should be with was not what she wanted. I loved it when she fell in love with Harry and realized he was not what she had envisioned herself with. I love how she learned humility and what true love is.
I don’t understand why they made Miranda the ugly one, was it because she was supposed to be the smart one? Is that really how men think of smart women? That we are less attractive than other women? The actress that plays Miranda is pretty in real life, but in the show they messed her teeth up and made her dowdy. How sad is that, on television and in the movies if you are smart you are seen as less than in the looks department. I find this especially troublesome as I believe I am highly intelligent, articulate and ever evolving, and so totally not unattractive. Oh I know I go through spells where I post that I am having an ugly day, but on the whole, I think I am really pretty. And everyone wants me. And I am smart.
Very frustrating to see smart women portrayed this way on my favorite medium, so in conclusion, I am a combination of all of the Sex in the City women, with only a little bit of Carrie thrown in. after all haven’t we all done something completely stupid at least once in our lives?

As of yesterday I have lost 19 pounds, thank you Weight Watchers, I feel a little better about myself. I still have my fat days, but I feel skinnier on the whole. Only 80 more pounds to go!! Then I will be perfect.
It is hot here in North Texas, seriously 107 degrees, over 30 days and counting of 100 + weather, and I hate the heat. I love the cold, I think we all know that, I want snow, ice, rain all of it. I love wearing sweater dresses and boots, tights and coats. Please bring back winter, I promise I will be good if you bring back winter!
Yesterday it was to Bonham for the Irishman’s car, luckily it was not what Auto Zone told him, it was just a battery and Jeffrey was able to correct the issue and save the Irishman some money. Today it is my car, a continuation of last week, Jeffrey had to order the part, so today my car will be perfect, yay!
I am cutting back on my food intake little by little, I am supposed to have 29 points a day, I have that down to about 20 now, some days I admit I eat the whole 29, but on the whole I keep it under that. I eat a lot of fresh fruit; those are all free point wise in the Weight Watcher system. I think I am very healthy. I do miss sour skittles and cheetos, I miss cheetos a lot, I dream about them. When I am old and it doesn’t matter if I am fat, like when I am 98, I am going to eat nothing but puffy cheetos for like a year. Then the next year I am going to eat nothing but sour skittles, then chocolate, then a whole year of Starbucks. So excited! Can’t wait to get old!